Upon the Wreckage of Oligarchy

Some days I wish that I could leave this country, just sail off in a sailboat and forget about my own two years of living in a dirty garage. It is only a pipe dream though; an emotional safety valve to allow the overflow of inputs to blow off into a bucket of fantasy like the bucket that I once washed myself in. What more can be said besides "I've grown to hate the land of my birth." Raised as a liberal Democrat I've come to despise even the very term Democrat as just a meaningless label, empty syllables, like patriot. I've come to despise that word as a well, as nothing more than a euphemism for right wing clap trap and more of the usual bull sh*t.

President Obama calls himself a Democrat so what does that term actually mean? He's a corporate shill who stands at a podium of a private university where the annual tuition is over $42,500 per year to tell us of sacrifices that we must make.

 A cheap theatric as Republican Ryan paint us a black future and Obama paints it in shades of gray. A choice between Ryan's reactionary reductions plus more tax cuts and spending cuts or Obama's bipartisan deficit reduction panel. A quick glance at the work of Obama's cat food commission will show that the corporate shill has all ready begun enacting it's spending freezes and employment freezes. Any idea where the cat food commission got most of their ideas from? Their ideas were lifted directly from the pages of the 2008 Republican national platform.

"From our first days as a nation, we have put our faith in free markets and free enterprise as the engine of America's wealth and prosperity.  More than citizens of any other country, we are rugged individualists, a self-reliant people with a healthy skepticism of too much government." Barack Obama

Excuse my language here but, bullsh*t!

 Just bull sh*t; from the first days as a nation we put our faith in protective tariffs. Out of our fear that the mother country would swamp us financially to regain what she could not militarily. There was no currency on Earth so strong as the British Pound nor so weak as the American dollar. British manufactured goods were at their zenith while American manufactured goods were but infants.

Then this hearty band of self reliant individualist began their self reliant trade of brewing corn whiskey. Their healthy skepticism of too much government ended at the barrel of government muskets. The issue wasn't strong drink; the issue was a means of storing a corn crop and adding value to an agricultural product.

Where bankers taxed thusly? Where shopkeepers taxed thusly? No, it was a tax imposed on poor planters by urban gentry.

The imposition of taxes on the poor multitudes for the benefit of the wealthy few.

"As a result of these bipartisan efforts, America's finances were in great shape by the year 2000.  We went from deficit to surplus.  America was actually on track to becoming completely debt free, and we were prepared for the retirement of the Baby Boomers.

But after Democrats and Republicans committed to fiscal discipline during the 1990s, we lost our way in the decade that followed.  We increased spending dramatically for two wars and an expensive prescription drug program --- but we didn't pay for any of this new spending.  Instead, we made the problem worse with trillions of dollars in unpaid-for tax cuts --- tax cuts that went to every millionaire and billionaire in the country; tax cuts that will force us to borrow an average of $500 billion every year over the next decade." Barack Obama

"We went from deficit to surplus,"
"We were prepared,"
"We lost our way,"
"We increased spending,"
"We didn't pay,"
"We made the problem worse,"

We have been busy haven't we? Barack Obama blames you and I for this fiscal mess. We paid the US Chamber of Commerce to lobby Congress. We insisted the Supreme Court illegally decide a Presidential election. We insisted that the two wars continue and we insisted that Obama raise military spending above Bush era levels and most of all we demanded that Barack Obama continue the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. We, you and I made him do that, he didn't want to but we made him do it. Pardon me, but bull sh*t.

The greatest economic downturn in over a century and what does our leader propose? Tax cuts, that's what we wanted was tax cuts! The President's $786 billion stimulus package was 35 percent tax cuts. After deducting those tax cuts for big business that left $510 billion for the three hundred million American people. In Germany they passed a stimulus package of $550 billion for one hundred million Germans. A stimulus of more than three times the size of the one Barack Obama said that we wanted.

For workers only unemployment extensions but a jobs program? The jobs program was simply more tax cuts, wasn't that what we wanted? I must have missed it but there must have been this huge public outcry for more corporate tax cuts because Mr. Obama only does what we ask him to do.

April 14 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) misled clients and Congress about the firm's bets on securities tied to the housing market, the chairman of the U.S. Senate panel that investigated the causes of the financial crisis said.

Senator Carl Levin, releasing the findings of a two-year inquiry yesterday, said he wants the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission to examine whether Goldman Sachs violated the law by misleading clients who bought the complex securities known as collateralized debt obligations without knowing the firm would benefit if they fell in value."

Republican Tom Coburn said; The subcommittee's findings show "without a doubt the lack of ethics in some of our financial institutions who embraced known conflicts of interest to accomplish wealth for themselves, not caring about the outcome for their customers. When that happens, no country can survive and neither can their financial institutions."

These collateralized debt obligations were labeled a triple A when they were actually junk, rated by bond agencies who were being paid by the banks. Banks that profited from your loss, bankers paid multimillion dollars bonuses that Obama compared to baseball player salaries. These criminals walk the streets unmolested while one million school age children are homeless on any given night in America. You know whose fault the corporate shill says that is? According to Mr. Obama that's your fault too!

A government that offers its people nothing, no help what so ever, only to yell down from the rescue helicopters to the victims of this economic hurricane, "You're on your own, what do you want from me? I gave you tax cuts!" Ten million homes made empty, forty million plus Americans put out in the road and the shill offers assistance only to "credit worth consumers" while the rest of you can just f*ck off and die. Well I say bull sh*t!

Real earnings declined 0.6 percent while consumer's prices rose 0.5 percent in the last thirty days. Unemployment numbers have been reduced on average less than one percent under Mr. Obama's program of corporate tax cuts. So what does Mr. Obama now suggest? He suggests working with the Republicans to cut even more taxes which has now become his hallmark.

 "So that's how our fiscal challenge was created.  That's how we got here.  And now that our economic recovery is gaining strength, Democrats and Republicans must come together and restore the fiscal responsibility that served us so well in the 1990s."

Three million Americans added to the rolls of poverty under this administration and a majority of those are children. Unemployed persons March 2010, 13,062,000 Number of unemployed persons counted March 2011, 11,754,000 a reduction of 1,308,000. Numbers of persons no longer counted as in the labor force March 2010, 73,363,000 and the number of persons not counted in the work force March 2011, 74,016,000 an increase of 1,653,000 people.

"And now that our economic recovery is gaining strength," bull sh*t!

Governors from Florida, Arizona, Indiana, and New Jersey have now proposed cutting unemployment benefits while Michigan and Missouri have all ready capped benefits at twenty weeks. The Chamber of Commerce in Missouri says these cutbacks will save businesses as much as $124 million a year in taxes. What does it mean for the mothers and fathers? What will it mean for their children? "The states need to start taking a stand against a federal government that will not live within its means and will not control it's spending," said Chamber CEO Daniel Mehan.

A simple choice is offered, two visions of leadership that both lead down the road to hell. Benign neglect or aggressive assault. Both visions offer tax cuts for the rich and spending cuts for the poor. Both visions that offer a future where Americans will work harder for less. In the last three years the number of Americans working for minimum wage or below has jumped forty percent. The number of Americans who own their own homes has fallen below that of Europe. This isn't the promise of a bright future but a threat to your future by fascist oligarchy where both parties actively seek to achieve the same goals.

They are adding fuel to the pyre that will eventually consume them. The flames of which that shall dance joyously in the eyes of working people. There is no escape, there are no sailboats which could carry us away and I could not go even if I had the means. I have children and friends with children and I have a vision of a different place laying its foundation upon the ashes of neglect and upon the wreckage of oligarchy.

A nation at peace, a nation where children walk to good schools with full bellies. A nation with health care for all and decent jobs for all. This is not a pipe dream but a clarion call to look over the horizon because the choice is yours and the dawn is ripe with possibilities.